Rasha Kelej, CEO of Merck Foundation

I am so happy to share that we had a very important and successful Online Summit with The Gambia and Merck Foundation, co-chaired by The Gambia First Lady & Ambassador of Merck Foundation More Than a Mother, H.E. Mrs. FATOUMATTA BAH-BARROW and myself.

We met all the 35 Merck Foundation Alumni from The Gambia, young Gambian doctors who are being trained in many critical and underserved specialties like Fertility & Embryology, Oncology, Diabetes, Sexual & Reproductive Medicine, Respiratory, Acute Medicines, and Neonatal Medicine. We are looking forward to providing more needed and more deserving specialties.

We, together with Her Excellency, First Lady of The Gambia, Ministry of Health, and the Ministry of Education we are making history in The Gambia. For the first time, we have an army of well-trained, Skilled, and specialized Doctors to transform the health care landscape in The Gambia.

We also met and acknowledged The Gambia’s winner of Merck Foundation Media Recognition Awards who has been the voice of the voiceless and helping to break the silence in order to break Infertility stigma, support girl education, and raise awareness about coronavirus.

Moreover, together with The Gambia First Lady, we have announced the 2021 edition of Merck Foundation More Than a Mother Awards for our Media, Fashion, Film making, and Music fraternity to raise awareness on the important topics of breaking the stigma around infertility, underscoring the importance of girls’ education and women empowerment at all levels, in addition to “Mask Up With Care” Media Recognition Awards and “Make Your Own Mask” Fashion Awards, Coronavirus theme-based awards for Media and Fashion fraternity.

Looking forward to receiving many more entries from The Gambia for the Merck Foundation 2021 Awards.

I am so happy and very proud and stay tuned to hear from our Doctors and our Alumni.

Kind regards,
Senator Dr. Rasha Kelej
CEO of Merck Foundation
President of Merck Foundation More Than a Mother

The Awards for 2021 launched are:

1. Merck Foundation Africa Media Recognition Awards “More Than a Mother” 2021: Media representatives are invited to showcase their work to raise awareness about Infertility Prevention, Breaking Infertility stigma, and Empowering Girls and Women through Education.

Submission deadline: 30^th October 2021. Click here to view more details.

2. Merck Foundation Film Awards “More Than a Mother” 2021: All African Filmmakers and Students are invited to create and share a FILM or a DOCUDRAMA to deliver strong and influential messages to break Infertility stigma, and /or Empowering Girls and Women through Education and at all levels.

Submission deadline: 30^th October 2021. Click here to view more details.

3. Merck Foundation Fashion Awards “More Than a Mother” 2021: All African Fashion Students and Designers are invited to create and share designs to deliver strong and influential messages to raise awareness about Infertility Prevention, Breaking Infertility stigma, and/or Empowering Girls and Women through Education.

Submission deadline: 30^th October 2021. Click here to view more details.

4. Merck Foundation Song Awards “More Than a Mother” 2021: All African Singers and Musical Artists are invited to create and share a SONG with the aim to Empower Girls and Women through Education and at all levels.

Submission deadline: 30^th October 2021. Click here to view more details.

5. Merck Foundation “Mask Up With Care” Media Recognition Awards 2021: Media representatives are invited to showcase their work to raise awareness on how to adapt best protection measures such as wearing your masks to show you care and love your family & community; to encourage your community to choose to vaccinate when it is available and to sensitize them to support healthcare workers who are at the forefront of COVID 19 pandemic.

Submission deadline: 30^th October 2021. Click here to view more details.

6. Merck Foundation “Make Your Own Mask” Fashion Awards 2021: All African Fashion Designers and Students are invited to create and share designs of masks and other clothing items that carry messages to encourage people to wear masks to show they care and at the same time make it creative and fun!